College Sports Blog

Making the Case: Texas A&M’s Johnny Manziel appears in several Heisman discussions at midway point of season

As college football hit the midway point of the 2012 season the Texas A&M Aggies have gone from a team that might be able to compete in their first SEC season to a 5-1 team that has a chance to play spoiler in the SEC West.

They owe much of the credit to first year head coach Kevin Sumlin but it’s not very hard to argue who is most responsible for the Aggies rise through six games and he goes by Johnny “Football” Manziel.

Through six games Manziel has been the SEC Player of the Week twice because of the ridiculous numbers he has been able to put up and the show stopping plays he makes on a weekly basis.

Manziel has thrown for 1680 yards and 14 touchdowns on a 67 percent completion rate. But he doesn’t stop there. The redshirt freshman leads the SEC with 676 rushing yards and has scored 10 touchdowns on the ground.

Combine all of that with a highlight reel of some of the most improbable plays college football has seen this year and Manziel has quickly become a Heisman candidate halfway through the season.

“While I’m here, if you want to see a human highlight reel, watch about 10 minutes of West Virginia’s Tavon Austin,” CBS Sports’ Mr. College Football Tony Barnhart said in his latest blog post when discussing Heisman hopefuls. “Also, Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel, aka Johnny Football, had 576 yards of total offense against Louisiana Tech. Stay tuned.”

“The legend of Johnny Football grows,” McCartney said. “Manziel piled up 576 yards of offense against Louisiana Tech, breaking the program and SEC records, and accounted for six touchdowns in the Week 7 shootout.

“Manziel’s stay in this race could be short, but he’s proving to be as entertaining as any player in the nation.”

“He’s lightning-quick and can outrun just about anyone out there,” Aschoff said. “You take Manziel off of this team and the Aggies aren’t close to being as good as they’ve been. He can change a game in a second with his feet, but also has the ability to make some quality throws. It’s like he doesn’t have an off button.”

Manziel will have a chance to prove whether he is a real Heisman candidate beginning Saturday when the Aggies welcome LSU to Kyle Field. It will be A&M’s first real test in the SEC and the best defense Manziel has faced since the season opener against No. 2 Florida.